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11/22/2010: Some people like to complain about Daylight Savings Time when they lose an hour of sleep by setting their clocks ahead each spring. In the early 1880s, citizens also complained about time because the U.S. had no standard time zones! In fact, there were fifty-three different railway time zones across the United States. Cities had different times because they used “sun time,” based on when the sun was at its peak, at noon.

11/26/2010: William Groninger was born on a farm in Pennsylvania. He had a long and interesting life, serving as county surveyor, county commissioner and as commissioner’s clerk there in Juniata County, as well as working once as a teacher and principal. He was also recruited into the 126th Regiment of Pennsylvania, Company I, during the Civil War.

11/27/2010: North Dakota has always been a large space with a relatively small population. Because of this, rural schools often had a shift in the number of students when children in one family matured and moved on.

11/28/2010: Some people have a gift for bringing reconciliation. That was certainly so of Dr. Richard Halverson.

11/29/2010: Beyond advising Americans to move west, Horace Greeley had little to do with Dakota Territory. Thus, a post in the territory named in his honor may appear odd. But, Greeley was more than a simple supporter of American expansion; he was an immensely influential editor of the New York Tribune, and a presidential candidate in 1872.

12/9/2010: With only a few weeks remaining until Old St. Nickolas comes down the chimney with his bag of toys, the sights and sounds of Christmas fill the air. Christmas carols often remind us of “Christmases long, long ago.” On this date in 1950, L. K. VanAlstine of Grand Forks and Theresa Thoreson of East Grand Forks recalled an even earlier time.

12/12/2010: In the annals of western North Dakota history there is one character that most typified the cowboy image. William Molash, better known as Turkey Track Bill, was born in Michigan, but ended up in Dakota Territory on a cattle drive from Texas.

12/11/2010: On this date in 1886, the Winona Times reported that the Indians of the Standing Rock Reservation had gathered for a ceremony to dedicate the sacred rock.

12/16/2010: On the campus of the University of North Dakota, there is a building that resembles a small science museum. You can find dinosaur tracks around the building, and the exterior is decorated with images of a volcano and an Apatosaurus, more commonly known as the brontosaurus. Inside the building is a 70 million year old skull of a Triceratops excavated from the Hell Creek rock formation north of Marmath in 1964 and restored in 1978 by UND faculty and students.

12/18/2010: An ever-present danger to all 19th century frontier towns was fire. Fargo was no exception. After a fire destroyed ten buildings in the winter of 1876, the city council passed its first fire ordinance and Fargo received its first hook and ladder rig.